With less than 6,000 cases of Covid-19 registered for 195 deaths, Niger is one of the least affected countries from a health point of view, but its economy is one of the most affected. And the impact of the pandemic has exacerbated the existence of uncertainty in production and exacerbated the number of Nigerians who end up in very great insecurity.
This is an alarming observation made by the World Bank for Niger. This Sahelian country must solve two equations, but alone it does not have the necessary formulas to revive its economy, the weight of the coronavirus pandemic and the persistence of terrorist attacks. Although one of the poorest countries in the world has not fallen into recession, it is one of those that has been hit the hardest by the global health crisis.
Growth fell from 5.9% in 2019 to 3.6% in 2020. This is not a dramatic decline, but in the Niger case it has resulted in 400,000 people slipping into extreme poverty, according to the World Bank. The department warns that this number may increase by another 200,000 poor due to strong population growth.
The other big problem is still uncertainty. Since 2015, the closure of several markets to shut down jihadist sources of supply has contributed to a slowdown in the real economy locally.
But the recovery may come this year, the World Bank, which expects a recovery of 5.5% of the Nigerian economy, hopes under the impetus of reopening the border with Nigeria.
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